Traveling abroad has taught me important lessons about courage, the super-virtue I champion in professional development. My recent trip to Perú, Chile and Argentina served up 20 “make-ya-say-hmm” life lessons with the theme of courage threaded throughout. I’m glad I didn’t miss the lessons, and I’m even more thrilled that I am able to share…
When I speak about courage, I notice audiences’ increased interest in my thoughts about discomfort. I’ll assume that interest piques because the youth and young adults listening to me have, at some point, allowed discomfort to keep them from pursuing a goal. (To be clear, I’m not talking about the kind of discomfort that emerges…
Courage is a quality often discussed in connection to executives of organizations, soldiers on the battlefield or entrepreneurs of new ventures. But, courage is not a quality reserved for adults. In fact, developing the ability to act courageously is critical to youth being all they can be. Here are six reasons why youth need courage.…
Maya Angelou famously said that “courage is the most important of all the virtues. Without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” Consistently is the key word. Courage is both foundational and foremost to helping an actor consistently choose honesty, tolerance, authenticity, integrity and every other virtue. If Maya’s quote was remixed and made…
Sometimes, a powerful quote is a perfect antidote to feeling sad, stuck or shaded. These quotes on courage from amazing black women provide a jolt of motivation to keep it moving. Happy International Women’s Day. When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes…
Is being courageous the same as being fearless? It’s a question I’m asked often, most recently by a 16-year-old attendee at the Guide, Inc youth conference where I spoke. In short, the answer is no. Here’s the longer answer. Both qualities support growth and adventure and help girls show up in the world with the…
There are rewards for confronting fear, even if the confrontation ends with girls stumbling into a corner, sliding into a fetal ball and burying their faces between their knees. The rewards I’m referring to can be hard for girls to recognize if their focus is on failed attempts, their weaknesses, how badly they embarrassed themselves…
Courage want girls to win, but it will not fight every battle. Courage never rushes to lace up its vintage combat boots and meet girls on the frontline of fear for a half-hearted or externally motivated pursuit. It would much rather chill on the sofa watching reruns of Beyoncé at Coachella than show up for…
Nothing. A high school crush taught me that. I had a ridiculously big crush on James*. Bigger than the ones I had on Keith* and Shawn*. The butterflies in my belly swarmed when I saw him, and the only way to settle them was to turn away. But, I never wanted to miss the smoothness…
What had a year’s worth of inquisitiveness about courage amounted to? That’s the question I reflected on a few days before the end of 2016. I had a virtual pile of notes about its nature, variables, development and application, and sifting back through it reminded me about the virtue’s complexity and power. Courage has been…